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She was lying down in her death bed
and was passing her last moments of life. She was extremely sad and upset.
People around her asked: “you are the daughter of the first caliph and the
mother of all believers. Why are you so sad?” She said: “The battle
of Jamal has stick like a bone in my throat. I wish I had died before that day
or I had been among the forgotten people.”(1)

This feeling of regret was not just
before her death. One day, a group of people around Aisha started to talk about
the battle of Jamal. She asked them: “Do people still remember that
battle?” They replied back: “yes.”

Aisha said: “I wish I had never
joined that battle and I had remained in my house like the rest of prophet’s
wives.”(2)

It has also been narrated that
whenever she recited the verse: “And [to the wives of the prophet] stay in your
houses… “(3), she wept so much that you could see the wetness on her head
scarf. (4)

What battle was the battle of Jamal,
in which Aisha, the prophet’s wife got so upset about?

The foundation of this battle
initiated shortly after people had pledged to Imam Ali (PBUH). Some people did
not like Amir al-Mu’minin’s (PBUH) justice in distributing the common wealth
and assigning rulers to different cities. This aroused their anger. As a
result, hatred of Imam Ali grew amongst men like Talha and Zubair. This came
especially after they were denied governance to the cities of Basrah and Kufa.
Thus, they left Medina with the excuse of pilgrimage of the house of Allah and
headed for Mecca.

On the other hand, many Umayyad
members who had received special positions and gotten used to bonuses during
the caliphate of Uthman had been cut off from these favors. Therefore, after
usurping considerable amount from the common wealth they gathered in Mecca.
They grouped with Talha and Zubair and met with Aisha. They used the stolen
money from the common wealth and formed an army to take revenge for Uthman’s
blood. They then took over the city of Basra. In this battle Aisha was on a
camel and the army gathered around her camel as the camel presented their
leading flag. Thus, the battle was known as the battle of Jamal (male camel).

Amir al-Mu’minin (PBUH) went to Basra
with his army to finish the uprising. He talked to them and fulfilled his
proofs upon them to prevent the war and bloodshed. They did not accept and
consequently there was an intense battle between the two groups and eventually
the army of Amir al-Mu’minin (PBUH) prevailed. Nonetheless, the war had many
horrible consequences which started to show how devastating it had been.

In the battle of Jamal, there were so
many arrows thrown between the two armies until each group ran out of arrows.
There were so many spears thrown and so many men killed that the cavalry had to
run over the bodies of killed Muslim soldiers. One of the soldiers in the
battle narrates: After the battle, whenever I passed the cloth washing
neighborhood (Dar al-Waleed) of Basra, the sound of washing sticks reminded me
the spears and swords which penetrated the body of soldiers in the Battel of
Jamal. (5)

There have been a number of reports on
the count of soldiers killed in action. However, all historians have agreed
upon the extremely high number of casualties. For example, Ya’qubi reports the
total number of killed soldiers of this battle was over thirty thousand in his
history book.

Indeed, the battle of Jamal caused
immense amount of emotional distress and economical loss to Muslims. So many
mothers who lost their sons; so many wives who became widows; and so many
children who lost their fathers!

All these losses and injuries took
place on only one day at a limited and definite part of the Islamic community.
Nonetheless the damaging domino effects continued for years to come, and
affected Muslims and Muslim countries later on. These effects are too much to
be measured or calculated. Yes, these were the cause of Umm al-Mu’minin Aisha’s
restlessness and anxieties.

(The above is a
selection taken from “The Role of Aisha in Islam” by Late Allamah Murtada
Askari (with some changes))

The Roshd Website commemorates the
10th of Jamadi al-Awwal, the anniversary of Battle of Jamal, the hard exam of
Muslims and the advice-giving event at the beginning years of Islam.

Footnotes:

1. Balaaghaat
al-Nisa’, p. 8. The story is mentioned in Tazkirah al-Khawas with further
details.

2. Osd
al-Ghaabah, vol. 3, p. 284 – Tabaqaat ibn Sa’ad, vol. 5, p. 1

3. “And stay in
your houses and do not display your finery like the displaying of the
ignorance.” (The Holy Quran, 33:33)